Each player starts with a town of prosperous people (50 PP). The turns are simple. ROLL THE DICE and determine if you have a growth of 0 to 20 people (average is 10 PP). This roll is modified if you have improvements like City Walls (reduces war & raid losses), Aquaducts (no Fires or Droughts), and Sewers (no Floods). Next, DRAW CARDS to bring your hand up to six. PLAY OR DISCARD A CARD. The cards come in two flavors: Rat cards and Sun cards with Medieval woodcut-like pictures on them. Rat cards destroy opponents' improvements and/or people (Viking Raid, Mongols, Fire, War, Crusade, Flood, etc). War cards cause two other players to fight. Sun cards provide improvements, more people, cards to cancel War & Crusade, and warfare advantages. The best cards are Pied Piper (steal 15 pp) and mass migration (steal 5 pp from all). When the Death (THE PLAGUE!) ship card shows up, the dice roll will subtract your people every turn. The last town with people left wins.

This game won't make you long for the good old days, i.e., the Middle Ages. You'll spend about half the game enjoying prosperity; you'll increase your population and fortify your town by building aqueducts, walls, and sewers. Then, just when everyone is getting comfortable, the dreaded Death Ship arrives and unleashes a plague on your population. There are plenty of cards, such as Bumper Harvest, War, Raid, and Earthquake, that affect your own or another's population. Dice determine how much your population increases with prosperity or decreases with plague. A player who loses all his people is immediately eliminated from the game. The winner is the last player with any citizens left; there are rarely more than a ragged few in this passionate struggle for survival.

Other Resources for Plague & Pestilence:

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